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Blackmore Unveils First Doppler Lidar

September 5, 2018

PRESS RELEASE – Today Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, Inc., the pioneers behind the world’s first Doppler lidar for automotive applications, confirmed that their system exceeded expectations in real-world scanning and mapping across the Bay Area’s busy highways and on the congested streets of San Francisco. This road testing clearly shows how Blackmore’s Doppler lidar can deliver the performance needed to make autonomous vehicles safer, smarter and more reliable than those equipped with traditional lidar.

With backers including BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Ventures, Blackmore’s team has successfully parlayed more than ten years of experience refining frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar with the Department of Defense to address the automotive industry’s rigorous requirements.

Blackmore’s sensor is the only lidar currently available that instantly delivers real-time velocity measurements of every detected point, helping make autonomous driving smarter and safer. Traditional pulsed lidar systems do not measure motion directly, meaning velocity information is only available after running computationally complex and error-prone analytics algorithms on multiple frames of data. With Blackmore’s instantaneous Doppler-enhanced data, autonomous vehicles perceive the world around them with very high confidence and the low latencies required for safe navigation.

Blackmore’s Doppler lidar also eliminates interference from sunlight and other sensors, and improves long-range performance compared with conventional lidar. These features, when combined with velocity measurements, deliver the trifecta required to help make autonomous driving safer.

“Until recently, OEMs and suppliers have only had pulsed lidar options for their vehicles, which have proven to be inadequate for the autonomous driving market’s long-term goals,” said Dr. Randy Reibel, Blackmore’s CEO. “Engineers with leading autonomous driving teams are ecstatic to see Blackmore’s Doppler lidar in action. They understand the value of Blackmore’s unprecedented approach and are excited to tap into a system that is economically efficient, reliable and scalable, without compromise.”

“Blackmore’s team is on a mission to make automated driving safer by leveraging FMCW technology to bring Doppler capabilities to the lidar market, a potential game changer for the autonomous mobility market,” said Jim Adler, managing director of Toyota AI Ventures. “And that’s just the beginning. They’re also exploring other applications and industries beyond the automotive space, from surveying to aerial vehicles.”

Blackmore’s automotive Doppler lidar systems, which are priced competitively with existing pulsed alternatives, are currently with teams at OEMs and suppliers across the industry.

About Blackmore Sensors and Analytics, Inc.

Blackmore is pioneering the development of compact and robust Doppler lidar sensors, and supporting analytic tools and software, for a variety of rigorous, mission critical, automotive, industrial and military environments. Where cost and performance specifications limit more traditional sensors, Blackmore’s technology brings the advanced toolsets of modern radar into the optical domain, enabling a new era of unprecedented lidar system performance. Blackmore is based in Bozeman, Montana.